The Central Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Ofori Boateng, has urged political parties to include civic education in their campaign messages, especially on how to properly cast a ballot.

He said politicians should be mindful that drawing crowds to campaigns would be useless if in the end the supporters would void their votes with inaccurate balloting.

Mr Boateng was speaking at the launch and premiering of a movie produced in collaboration with STAR- Ghana, on Coastal Television, a community-based television station in Cape Coast.

The 20-minute movie dubbed, “A Vote for Me”, directed by Mr Gerald Addai, is to educate the public on the roles and responsibilities of a Member of Parliament (MP).

It is also targeted at educating the public on how to properly handle ballot papers to help reduce the number of rejected and spoilt ballots during the polls.

The movie also portrays how politicians can do effective campaigns devoid of violence and disturbances

Mr. Boateng advised political leaders to develop an interest in civic education, since it was a shared responsibility between the NCCE and all the other stakeholders in nation building.

The Regional Director said despite the numerous elections held in the country, coupled with the various educational programmes, the Electoral Commission still recorded large numbers of rejected ballots during elections and described the situation, “as unacceptable”.

Mr. Boateng commended the management of Coastal Television for coming up with such a beautiful movie, which would help educate the public on how to cast their votes, campaign without violence and disturbances and stop making unnecessary demands from their MPs since they were law makers and not development agents.

Mrs Barbara Asher Ayisi, the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s parliamentary candidate for Cape Coast North Constituency, urged the stakeholders in the general election, such as political party leaders, the Police, Electoral Commission, NCCE and the media to play their roles effectively to ensure peaceful elections, in November.

Mr Selete Nyomi, the Founding President of Coastal Television, called on the public to vote on issues but not on personalities and to find time to study the manifestos of the various political parties to enable them to make informed decisions.